USA teams keeping playoff hopes alive in Switzerland

USA ladies drop to 4-3 at 2014 World Junior Championships in Switzerland

(STEVENS POINT, Wis.) - With just a few games left in the round robin at the 2014 World Junior Championships, USA's teams are clawing to reach the playoffs in Flims, Switzerland.

The American ladies, led by Cory Christensen (Duluth, Minn.), dropped to 4-3 in the round robin standings at Waldhaus Arena after losing to Canada's Kelsey Rocque rink, 8-4, this afternoon. Christensen and teammates Mackenzie Lank (Lewiston, N.Y.), Anna Bauman (Duluth, Minn.), Anna Hopkins (Bismarck, N.D.), and Tina Persinger (Fairbanks, Alaska) trailed throughout the match with Canada and struggled to put multiple points on the scoreboard with the last rock.

"We didn't play that poorly - we just missed some half shots," Hopkins said. "Canada played very well; it just didn't turn out in our favor. It was kind of hard to hear because of the crazy fans in the arena today, which caused some problems, but generally it was just some half shots that cost us the game, not making the rolls and things like that."

"We were just unlucky there - that's curling," said Violette, 14. "We had a chance in the extra end but we were a little bit heavy with our last shot - we bumped it a bit too far to let them have that shot. If we were a couple of inches lighter they don't have that shot."

The loss means the American men are now 2-4 in the standings.

"Tight games like that make you more determined to win - that's what World Championships are all about," Violette said. "If you expect to come here and bowl everyone over then I don't know what you're doing here - you're going to have lots of tight games."

The U.S. men finish out the round robin with a game against Norway (5-1) tonight and face Canada (3-3) and Russia (3-3) tomorrow. "I thought we played pretty well. We had really good team chemistry, everyone was really positive on the ice and we had fun. We're just going to take it one game at a time now and try our best to reach the playoffs," Violette said.

The U.S. ladies have two games left in the round robin and are currently tied for fifth place with Sweden (4-3). USA will play Sweden and Russia (5-2) tomorrow. The last time the U.S. women made the World Juniors playoffs was 2010 when they won bronze.

A complete game schedule is posted at http://wjcc2014.curlingevents.com. You can watch the action via the World Curling Federation's YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/WorldCurlingTV. Live scores, standings and photos also is posted at the WCF website. You can also follow along on Twitter via USA Curling's Twitter feed (@terry_usacurl) as well as the WCF's (@worldcurling or @WCFmedia) using the hashtags #WJCC2014 or #curling.